Lord of the Sabbath
In the opening two sections of text, Jesus gives us three
incredibly profound teachings. First,
Jesus instructs us that there is work that can be done on the Sabbath. You see, there is worldly work – which God
has reserved 6 days for us to accomplish – and there is kingdom work – which Jesus
tells us is permissible on the Sabbath.
For the record, kingdom work is permissible on the other 6 days,
too.
The Law of the Sabbath is a law designed to separate the worldly
(secular) from the spiritual (holy). The
Law of the Sabbath is not meant to also eliminate from the spiritual and the
righteous from the Sabbath – which is the precise effect of what the religious
leaders were saying. To follow the
religious leader’s train of thought to its natural conclusion means that we can
do nothing on the Sabbath because everything – even getting out of bed and
driving to church – is work.
However, Jesus tells us that we can do work on the Sabbath – God’s
work. We can be about restoring people
emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
We can be about eating and drinking in fellowship with the Lord. We absolutely can be about spiritual things
on the Sabbath. But they must be the
Lord’s work, not worldly work we manipulate into conceiving as the Lord’s work.
This brings us to the second lesson. Jesus then tells the religious leaders that
something greater than the temple has come.
Jesus – the Son of God – is Lord of the Sabbath. His followers – those who do the work of God –
are greater than the temple and all of the sacrificial atonement that would
happen there. Jesus will take care of
atonement; His followers will proclaim that atonement to the world. In essence, here is the greater thing. In the system of the Law, people had to come
to the temple for atonement. In Christ,
atonement comes to us. Jesus is indeed
Lord over the Sabbath.
Then there is the third teaching.
This one really cuts deep into the Jewish leaders – and most of us who
tend to be more Law oriented than Grace oriented. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that they don’t
understand what God is really about. God
desires mercy, not sacrifice. God
desires us to focus on repentance, not perfection. Yes, God wants us to understand the Law and
live according to His ways. But He wants
us to understand that true repentance and returning to Him is far more
important than the sin that we do. Don’t
focus on the sin; focus on the process of returning and abiding with God!
Silence
The Jewish leaders didn’t like being challenged. So they secretly began to arrange for His
death. Jesus was aware of this, so He
began to tell people not to talk about Him.
I’ve taught on this subject before, but it is important enough to
talk about again and again. Jesus isn’t
giving us permission to keep Him to ourselves here. Jesus is giving specific instructions to His
followers because He knows His time is short.
Jesus knows that He will die; He just doesn’t want to die before His
mission is accomplished. So He tells His
followers to not say anything in an attempt to keep the rumor and the gossip
from growing too large too fast. Remember,
once He dies and is resurrected, the last thing He tells us to do is to go into
the world and tell everyone about Him!
People Question Jesus’ Power
A demon possessed man is
brought in to see Jesus and he is healed.
Of course, the Pharisees jump on this and begin to tell the crowd that
he can only do this because he is in league with Satan. Jesus confronts them.
Jesus says that Satan has no reason to cast out Satan. Why would Satan destroy something that he
took time arranging in the possession of the man? Then Jesus tells us that He has come into
this world to bind up the strong man of the world: Satan. Jesus has come so that people might truly
experience the Kingdom of God coming among them.
However, when the Kingdom of God comes among us we have two
choices. We can either join it, or
reject it. By default, Jesus tells us
that not joining equates to rejection.
To put it bluntly, there are Christians and Non-Christians. The non-Christians might separate themselves
into Atheists and Agnostics. But Jesus’
point is that by default they are still Non-Christians.
Fruit
Of course, this naturally brings us into the next section. Every good tree bears good fruit. Every bad tree bears bad fruit. This is true, because our fruit comes out of
our being. If our inner being is filled
and sustained by God, then good can come out.
If our inner being is filled with and sustained with ourselves, then
evil will come out.
Jonah
The religious leaders come wanting a sign. At this point, Jesus has just about had
enough of them. Where were they when He
was performing miracles all across the country?
Where were they when people were testifying to the things He was
doing? No, they want a sign for their
own purposes, not because they wish to see God’s glory on display.
However, Jesus does tell them that they will receive a sign. The sign relates to Jonah being in the belly
of the fish for 3 days. Of course, Jesus
is speaking to Him being in the tomb for 3 days. As Jonah was brought back out, so will Jesus
be brought out of the tomb.
But the religious leaders won’t see it. They’ll miss it, just like they missed all of
the other testimony about His miracles and signs. They’ll see what they want to see rather than
being open to what God would have them see.
Mother-and-Brothers
I’m going to jump to the end of Matthew 12 for a second. At the end of this chapter, Jesus declares
that His spiritual family are the ones who are around Him. His spiritual family are the people who are
receiving His testimony and living out God’s will. Jesus defines true family not as blood but
rather as spirit. Unlike the Jewish
religious leaders – who genealogically are of the same lineage as Jesus but who
are blind to God’s hand at work through Him, those who have embraced what God
is doing through Jesus are His family.
Return of a Spirit
Now let me return to the passage over which I jumped. Jesus tells us about the importance of
filling our life with God. For if we are
freed of that which oppresses us but don’t find anything to fill our life, that
which oppresses us will simply come back to roost. When it comes back, it will be more powerful
because we thought we had defeated it yet here it is again. It will bring even more oppression with us.
This is why it is so important to understand actual change as a
part of repentance. If repentance is
nothing more than feeling sorry for what we’ve done, we’ll continue to do
it. Eventually we’ll stop even feeling
sorry for doing it. We’ll fall into more
and more sinful behavior. However, if we
actually change, we’ll fill our life with God and His ways. There will be no place for the evil to
return. It is the actual change in our
life that makes repentance stick. The
feeling of remorse and regret is simply only the beginning.
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